A news and opinion perspective from the Islands. While the rest of you beaver away on the mainland, I comment about what goes on from Waikiki.

Friday, March 24, 2006

City Hall evicts Easter Bunny

Jay Nordlinger comments in "Inpromptus": human-rights director? This is what Tyrone Terrill is, the human-rights director? Odd -- I thought I wrote about human rights when I wrote about the torture of innocents in dungeons and so on. Little did I know that the real human-rights action is...in City Hall, where a secretary displays pastel-colored eggs.

A toy rabbit decorating the entrance of the St. Paul City Council offices went hop-hop-hoppin' on down the bunny trail Wednesday after the city's human rights director said non-Christians might be offended by it.

The decorations — including the stuffed rabbit, Easter eggs and a handcrafted sign saying "Happy Easter," but nothing depicting the biblical account of Christ's death and resurrection — were put up this week in the office of the City Council by a council secretary.

It was not the first holiday decoration ever to go up in the building, but City Hall observers believe it is the first one to come down out of concerns for religious sensitivity.

"I sent an e-mail that Easter is viewed as a Christian holiday and advised that it be taken down," said Tyrone Terrill, the city's human rights director. "It wasn't a big deal."